Aircraft wheel brakes of a specific size generally comprise a stack of discs comprising, alternately, stators which do not rotate with the wheel and rotors which rotate with the wheel. The discs are arranged between a rear support and one or more actuators which selectively press the discs one against the other in order to generate a resisting torque, which brings about a deceleration of the wheel, and thus contribute to braking the aircraft.
The stack of discs is generally sized in order to ensure braking of the aircraft in the event of a situation involving an aborted take-off at full thrust. This event, which is very exceptional in the life of an aircraft, leads to the multiplication of the number of discs in order to provide a sufficient number of frictional interfaces, and to provide a significant thickness of the stack of discs. The heat sink constituted by the discs is thus oversized for the common braking actions. Furthermore, the multiplication of the number of discs impairs the service-life of the discs, the wear being even greater when the number of frictional faces is large.